Outdoor access provides significant welfare benefits for cats but involves real risks. Evidence-based risk management enables outdoor access to be offered safely for many cats.
Outdoor access welfare involves balancing the significant behavioural benefits of outdoor activity against real safety risks. Cats with outdoor access express more natural behaviour, maintain healthier weight, and have lower rates of stress-related disease. However, road mortality, predation, infectious disease, and toxin exposure represent genuine risks. Risk management approaches enable welfare-positive outdoor access: garden cat-proofing with fencing or netting eliminates road risk while maintaining outdoor benefits. Curfews at high-risk times reduce accident and predation risk. Supervised outdoor time with a harness enables safe enrichment. Traffic awareness selection of high-traffic road environments as unsuitable for outdoor cats is realistic welfare risk management.